Wasteful Cobblers frustrate boss Edinburgh after Fleetwood defeat

James Heneghan

A mix of wasteful finishing and poor defending were Justin Edinburgh’s main frustrations after his side’s 3-0 defeat to Fleetwood Town on Saturday.

The Cobblers had their promotion-chasing hosts on the back foot for much of a promising first-half but their failure to convert three good chances was punished on the stroke of half-time when Devante Cole pounced on a defensive mix-up.

To make matters worse, Bobby Grant and David Ball then netted within four minutes of each other shortly after the restart as Fleetwood eased to an ultimately comfortable victory.

“I’m bitterly disappointed and really frustrated with the end result,” said Edinburgh afterwards.

“It wasn’t about the middle third today because I thought we competed really well in midfield but it came down to the two penalty areas and we weren’t ruthless enough in the opposition’s box.

“At the same time we allowed their goals in too easy so it’s a really frustrating afternoon. We dominated the first-half but we haven’t been clinical and we haven’t got ourselves in front when we had the opportunities to do so.

“When that happens, you see exactly what can happen at the other end and we know we can do a lot better for their goals.

“I’m really disappointed, but in terms of in the middle part of the pitch, we couldn’t have done any more.”

Edinburgh, who also refused to put the blame on the blustery conditions, and his team now face a crunch encounter on Tuesday evening when fellow relegation battlers Oldham visit Sixfields.

Edinburgh added: “We should have capitalised on the opportunity we had with the wind but we didn’t and now obviously we’ve got to look at that and work on that and become better if we’re going to be more consistent.

“If we’re going to move up the table, we should be getting something from games like this. The scoreline doesn’t reflect that but in terms of chances we should have got something.”